CHAPTER XV
THE GOD OF TEN PER CENT
It was the nature of the Widow to resort to violence in every crisis ofher life and at each fresh memory of the effrontery of Wiley Holman shesearched the empyrean for words. From the very start he had come to Kenowith the intention of stealing her mine. First it was his father, whopitied her so much he was willing to buy her shares; then it was the taxsale, and he had sneaked in at night and tried to jump the Paymaster;then he had deceived her and stood in with Blount to make her sell allher stock for a song; and then, oh hateful thought, he had actually soldout to Blount for a hundred dollars, cash; only to put Blount in thehole and buy the mine back again for the price of the ore on the dump!
The Widow poured forth her charges without pausing for breath ornoticing that her audience had fled, and as Wiley went on about hisbusiness she raised her voice to a scream. The rest of the Kenoites, andsome of the workmen, were out staking the nearby hills; but whenever shestopped she thought of some fresh duplicity which made reason totter onits throne. He had refused half the mine from Blount as a gift and thenturned around and bought it all. He had refused to buy her shares, timeand again, when he knew they were worth a million; and then, to cap theclimax, he had let her sell to Blount and bought them for nothing fromhim. And even Death Valley Charley--poor, crazy, brain-sick Charley--hehad robbed him of all ten of his claims!
It was a damning arraignment, and Wiley's men listened grimly, but heonly twisted his lip and nodded his head ironically. With one eye on hisaccuser, who was becoming hysterical, he hustled the ore into the emptytrucks and started them off down the road; and then, as Virginia led hermother away, he re-engaged his cook. They had supper that night in theold, abandoned cook-house; and, so wonderfully do great minds work, thata complete bill of grub was discovered among the freight. Not only flourand beans and canned goods and potatoes, but baking powder and matchesand salt; and the cook observed privately that you'd think Mr. Holmanhad intended to make camp all the time. It is thus that foresight leapsahead into the future and robs life of half its ills; and the WidowHuff, still unpacking plates and saucers, was untroubled by clamorousguests. She had had her say and, as far as Wiley was concerned, therewere no more favors to be expected.
Yet the Widow was wise in the ways of mining camps and she prepared tofeed a horde--and the next day they came, by automobile andmotor-truck, until every table was filled. The rush was on, forfour-thousand dollar ore will bring men from the ends of the world.Before the sun had set in the red glow of a sandstorm the desert wasstaked for miles. From the chimneys of old houses, long abandoned tothe rats, rose the smokes of many fires and the rush and whine ofpassing automobiles told of races to distant grounds. All the oldmines in the district, and of neighboring districts where the precious"heavy spar" occurred, were re-located--or jumped, as the case mightbe--and held to await future developments. The first thing was tostake. They could prospect the ground later. Tungsten now was king.Men who had never heard the name, or pronounced it haltingly, nowspoke learnedly of tungsten tests; and he was a poor prospector indeedwho lacked his bottle of hydrochloric acid and his test-tubes andstrip of shiny tin. They swarmed about the base of the old Paymasterdump like bees around a broken pot of honey and when, pounded up andboiled in the hydrochloric acid, the solution bit the tin and turnedbright blue, there was many a hearty curse at the fickle hand offortune which had led Wiley Holman to that treasure.
It had lain there for years, trampled down beneath their feet. Now thiskid, this mining-school prospector, had come back and grabbed it all.Not only the Paymaster with its tons of mined ore, but the ten claims tothe north, all showing good scheelite, which Death Valley Charley hadlocated--he had held them down as well. Two hundred dollars down and acarefully worded option had tied them up for five thousand dollars, andthere were tungsten-mad men in that crowd of boomers who would havegiven fifty thousand apiece. They came up to the mine where Wiley wasworking and waved their money in his face, and then went off grumblingas he refused all offers and went busily about his work. So they came,and went, until at last the great wave brought Samuel J. Blount himself.
He came up the trail smiling, for there was nothing to be gained bymaking belated complaints; but when he saw the pile of precious whiterock the smile died away in spite of him. It was the boast of Blountthat, buying or selling, he always held out his ten per cent; but thatpile of ore had cost him dear and he had sold it out for next tonothing. And it was his other boast that he could read men's hearts whenthey came to buy or sell, but here was a young man who had seen himcoming twice and gained the advantage both times. So the smile grewlonger in spite of his best efforts and when at last he found WileyHolman in the office of the company it was perilously near a sulk.
"Well, good morning, Wiley," he began with unction, and then he lookedgrievously about. The expensive gas engine which he had bought andinstalled was already unwatering the mine; spare timbers were goingdown, the new blacksmith-shop was running and Wiley was sitting at hisdesk. Everything was there, just the way he had left it, except that itbelonged to Wiley. Blount heaved a heavy sigh and then set his featuresresolutely, for the battle was not over yet. To be sure the mine wasbonded for a measly fifty thousand dollars, and his stock was tied upunder an option; but many things can happen in six months' time andWiley was only a boy. Granted that he was a miner and understood ore,there is such a thing as an "Act of God." Cables break without reason,mines cave and timbers fall; and certainly if there is a God of Ten PerCent his just wrath would be visited upon Wiley. Blount knew that greatgod and worshipped him continually and he felt certain that somethingwould happen, for when boys out of college take money away from bankpresidents it comes dangerously close to sacrilege.
"Well, well," murmured Blount, "quite a change, quite a change. Are yousure that stuff is tungsten, Wiley?"
"Yes," responded Wiley, affecting a becoming modesty to cover up hisyouthful smirk. "Would you like to see it tested?"
"Very much," answered Blount, and followed after him to the assayoffice, which Wiley had hurriedly fitted up. Wiley took a piece ofscheelite and pounded it in a mortar until it was fine as flour, thendropped it into a test-tube and boiled it over a flame in a solution ofhydrochloric and nitric acids.
"Now," he said, when the tungstic acid had been dissolved, and he haddropped a small bar of tin into the solution. It turned a dark blue andBlount sighed again, for he had looked up the test in advance. "If itturns blue," a prospector had told him, "like the color of me overalls,then, sure as hell, it's tungsten."
"Well, well," commented Blount, gazing mildly about, for great men donot stop to repine, "and what do you use these big scales for?"
"That's for the quantitative test," explained Wiley importantly. "Byweighing the sample first and extracting the tungsten we get thepercentage, when it's been filtered and dried and weighed again, of thetungstic acid in the ore. But it's quite an elaborate process."
"Yes, yes," assented Blount, still managing to smile pleasantly. "Ratherout of my line, I guess. What per cent do your samples average?"
"Oh, between sixty and seventy when I pick my specimens. I'm rigging upa jigger to separate the ore until I can get capital to start up themill. It ought to be milled, by rights, and only the concentratesshipped; but while I'm getting started----"
"Oh, draw on me--any time," broke in Blount, smiling radiantly. "I'd beonly too glad to accommodate you. That's my business, you know; loaningout money on good security, and you're good up to fifty thousanddollars."
"Do you mean it?" demanded Wiley after a startled silence, and Blountslapped him heartily on the back.
"Just try me," he said. "I've been looking up the market and tungsten issimply booming. It's quoted at forty-five for sixty per centconcentrates, and you must have tons and tons on the dump."
"Yes, lots of it," admitted Wiley, "and say, now that you mention it, Ibelieve I'll take you up. I need a little money to install somemachinery and get the old mill to running
. How about ten thousanddollars?"
"Why--all right," assented Blount, after a moment's thought. "Of courseyou'll give some security?"
"Oh, sure," agreed Wiley. "My option on the mine--I suppose that's whatyou're after?"
Blount blinked for a moment, for such plain speaking was surprisingfrom one as shrewd as Wiley, but he summoned up his smile and nodded."Why--why, yes, that's all right. Say one per cent a month--payablemonthly--those are our ordinary short-time terms."
"Suits me," said Wiley. "But no cut-throat clauses--none of this WidowHuff line of stuff. If I forget to pay my interest that doesn't make theprincipal due and the security forfeit and so on, world without end."
"Oh, no; no, certainly," cried Blount with alacrity. "We'll make it aflat loan, if you like, and endeavor to treat you right. Of courseyou'll start a checking account and----"
"No," said Wiley, "if I borrow the money I'll take it out of your bankand put it in another, right away. I never let friendship interfere withbusiness or warp my business judgment."
"Yes, but Wiley," protested Blount, "what difference does it make? Isn'tmy bank perfectly safe and sound?"
"Undoubtedly," returned Wiley, "but--do you happen to remember a littlecheck for four hundred dollars? It was made out by me in favor of DeathValley Charley and they cashed it through your bank--Virginia Huff, youknow--in payment for Paymaster stock. Well, if you're going to keeptrack of my business like that----"
"Oh, no, no," exclaimed Blount, suddenly remembering the means by whichhe had detected Wiley's purchase of Virginia's stock, "you misunderstandme, entirely. If you want to wait a few days for the money you arewelcome to put it anywhere."
"Well, hold on," began Wiley. "Now maybe I'd better go to the otherbank----"
"Oh, no, no, no," protested Blount, "I wouldn't hear of it. I'll writeyou the check, this minute. On your personal note--that's good enoughfor me. You can put up the collateral later."
"Well, let's think this over," objected Wiley cannily. "I don't like toput up that option for security. That bond and lease is worth half amillion dollars and----"
"Just give me your note," broke in Blount hurriedly, "and hurry up--herecomes Mrs. Huff."
"All right," cried Wiley, and scribbled out the note while Blount waswriting the check.